Christmas Baking
by Shannon730
Summary: Jack wants to relive a childhood Christmas


Ianto paused outside the door. The delicious scent that had invaded his senses the moment he'd entered the building was coming from his flat. Someone was baking something...in his flat. It was just a few days until Christmas so the aroma of baking wasn't that odd, but the fact that it was coming from his home was. Particularly since he wasn't home. Jack had left work early, saying he had some things to do and wanted to use Ianto's flat, but he wouldn't be baking, would he?

He pushed the door open slowly, and saw Jack's coat thrown over his sofa. Sighing, he hung up his own coat before picking up Jack's and hanging it beside his own. He could hear Jack in the kitchen, singing Christmas carols. He considered going to see what Jack was doing, but decided to change out of his suit first. He was home earlier than usual; the Rift was being particularly quiet today so he and Gwen had decided to switch the Rift monitor to their handhelds and leave early so they could grab some extra time to prepare for the holidays. As he made his way down the hall to his room, he saw that Jack had apparently had the same idea because several boxes of holiday decorations were pulled out of storage and lining the hallway. That would at least save him some of the heavy lifting he had expected. He quickly changed into jeans and a jumper and headed back toward the kitchen to see what Jack was doing.

He stopped in the doorway of his small kitchen, his eyes widening in shock. He had thought Jack was baking, but clearly that wasn't the case. "Jack, were you attacked?"

"Ianto," Jack said, turning around with a tray of biscuits in one hand. "You're home early."

"Yes, but apparently too late to help you fight the alien."

"Alien?" Jack frowned. "What alien?"

"The one that obviously attacked you in my kitchen," Ianto said, gesturing at the mess in the room. "One that I can only imagine bleeds flour, and exploded during the fight."

Jack looked around him, eyes widening as if he hadn't noticed the mess before Ianto had pointed it out. "I guess I made a bit of a mess, huh?"

"You think?"

"I'll clean it up," Jack said, ignoring Ianto's snort of disbelief. "I made biscuits."

"Why?"

"It's Christmas."

"I realize that," Ianto said. He moved closer to see the tray full of tree and snowman shaped biscuits. "I don't see how that means you need to destroy my kitchen."

Jack dumped the tray of biscuits on a plate and sat down in a chair before answering. "Well, I did intend to have the mess cleaned up before you got home but you're early. My mother was American; did I ever tell you that?"

"No," Ianto answered, taking the seat across from Jack and absently rearranging the biscuits on the plate into neat piles. "I thought you were from Boeshane."

"I am; I was born there, grew up there," Jack confirmed. "My mom was American, though. My father met her when he visited America and took her back home with him. We'd celebrate every Christmas the way she did when she was young. The best part of it, for me when I was a kid, was the biscuits. She'd bake for days, so many kinds of biscuits it was amazing."

"So you want to recreate a childhood Christmas?" Ianto asked, suddenly feeling guilty for being upset with Jack for the mess he'd made.

"These," Jack said, picking up one of the Christmas tree biscuits. "These were my favourite when I was a kid. Do you know why?"

Ianto shook his head.

"These were the biscuits we got to help with," Jack explained. "After the baking was done, she would call us in and we'd sit at the table with her and we'd all ice the biscuits together. We each had our favourites. Gray always took all the Santa Claus ones, and Mum decorated the stars."

"You liked the trees and snowmen," Ianto said, glancing down at the plate filled with biscuits.

Jack smiled and nodded. "Yeah, they were. I just wanted to have them again. After everything that's happened this year I thought we'd both enjoy reliving something positive."

Ianto smiled. Jack was right; they needed something good in their lives for a change. He wished Jack had waited for him to start baking because the mess would've been cut in half, but if this made Jack happy then he'd gladly spend the rest of the night cleaning the kitchen.

"Why don't I clear this up," Ianto suggested, "while you go through the Christmas decorations in the hallway and see what we can use."

"I can clean up," Jack said.

"No, I'll be faster," Ianto said. "Then we can ice the biscuits and decorate the flat."

"Really?" Jack said, his smile growing wider. "You don't mind? I'd decorate the Hub but..."

"No, let's have a real Christmas this year," Ianto said. "We'll decorate and have your biscuits, and I'll pick up some things from my childhood Christmases. Maybe we can see what Gwen and Rhys are doing and have a big Christmas dinner."

"That sounds brilliant!"

"Then let's get started. We have a lot to do if we're going to be ready in time."

Jack took off to sort through the boxes and Ianto sighed as he began to clean flour from the work surfaces and tables. He'd finish the cleaning and call Gwen. Now he just hoped the Rift would allow him to give Jack one happy Christmas.

The End.


End file.
